Olympus Granites, a private firm with which former Union Minister M.K. Alagiri’s son Durai alias Dayanithi Alagiri was once associated, has moved the Madras High Court Bench here challenging the summons issued to it by IAS officer U. Sagayam who had been directed by the court to find out if the State government had initiated sufficient action against illegal mining activities.
In its writ petition, company’s director A. Balasubramanian claimed that Mr. Sagayam had no authority to summon granite firm owners for enquiry since the First Bench of the High Court had appointed him as a Legal Commissioner with a limited mandate of inspecting the mines and submitting a report to ascertain the action initiated so far by the State against illegal miners.
Accusing the IAS officer of being prejudiced against the miners, the petitioner claimed that a number of news articles published about him in the media would only show that he was interested in publicity.
He also pointed out that the summons did not contain specific details but for asking representatives of the mining firm to appear for enquiry with all relevant documents available with them.
Further, stating that the Collector had already initiated action on the issue by invoking his powers under the Tamil Nadu Mines and Minerals Act, 1959, and that the district police too had booked a number of criminal cases against almost all private mining firms here and their owners, the petitioner said that, under such circumstances, the Legal Commissioner could not be allowed to conduct a parallel enquiry.
The writ petition is expected to be listed for hearing before Justice K. Ravichandra Baabu on Thursday.
